FIG. 1 shows a conventional wireless communication service configuration. Mobile service center (MSC) 100 communicates via base stations 120, 122, 124 with a community of wireless telephones 150. MSC 100 also communicates with public switched telephone network (PSTN) 170 so that wireless telephones 150 can place calls to and receive calls from conventional wireline telephones (not shown). MSC 100 includes processor 102, home location register (HLR) 104, visitor location register (VLR) 106, PSTN interface 108, base station communications interface 110 and network interface 112. HLR 104 and VLR 106 comprise computer memory and/or storage devices. MSC 100 also includes additional computer memory and/or storage devices for use by processor 102, but not shown.
HLR 104 is adapted to store profiles for wireless telephones 150 permanently associated therewith. That is, when a user signs up for wireless communication service with a service provider, the service provider creates a data record in MSC 100 for the user, referred to as a profile and stored in HLR 104, containing descriptive and billing information for the wireless communication device, and wireless communication service for the wireless communication device. When the user uses the wireless communication service in the area served by MSC 100, the profile in HLR 104 is accessed.
When a user of a wireless telephone with a profile not stored in HLR 104, referred to as a visiting user, attempts to use wireless communication service from MSC 100, MSC 100 creates a data record in VLR 106 for the user. MSC 100 has a list of areas codes and exchanges identifying the home mobile switch number for a visitor presenting a particular area code and exchange, uses this list to obtain the home mobile switch number for the visiting user, and then converts the home mobile switch number to a HLR address associated with the visiting user. Via communications network 180 coupled to network interface 112, MSC 100 requests the profile for the visiting user telephone from the HLR associated therewith. MSC 190 is shown as representing a plurality of MSCs which are accessible to MSC 100 via communications network 180 which may be, for example, the AT&T SS7 switching network.
The profile for the visiting user is stored in VLR 106 while the visiting user is in the area served by MSC 100. When the visiting user leaves the area served by MSC 100, MSC 100 deletes the profile from VLR 106.
The data records for the profiles have a fixed size for accommodating users who have signed up for a variety of enhanced communication features, such as call forwarding, call screening, multi-party calling, caller ID, message waiting, blocking priority and so on. Since the fixed size is a large number of bytes, such as 1000 bytes per profile, MSC 100 is limited in the number of wireless telephones it can serve by profile memory requirements. In general, users are allocated similar amounts of wireless communication network resources, which becomes more inefficient as the variety of available services increases.